Chapter 22
Velda didn’t have much time to study the Caruson ship as they were marched down a passageway.
She had a feeling they were the first Verdant Stringers to ever get a look so deep inside a ship—not that it would be useful if they didn’t make it off the ship alive.
Linao was struggling, and Velda slowed, waiting for her and then bending a little to get her shoulder under Linao’s arm. Ethan was walking up front, a laz very close to his head.
The guard behind them called out something as she began to prop Linao up, but then adjusted his tone when he realized what Velda was doing. He said nothing more, allowing Velda to help Linao into the same cell Ethan had already been forced into.
It held two double bunks and a tiny basin and toilet at the back, with a screen separating the bathroom from the rest of the cell.
“No shower,” Velda said.
Ethan put an arm around her in comfort, and Linao looked between them as she collapsed on to the bottom bunk on the left.
“So what?” she asked. “We’ve got bigger things to worry about.”
Before Velda could respond, the door of the cell opened again.
“You.” The guard pointed to her. “Come.”
Ethan’s grip on her tightened. “Can I come, too?” he asked.
“No.” A laz was pointed at him, but because they were so close together, it was effectively pointed at them both.
Ethan released his hold immediately and stepped back, hands away from his sides.
“Good.” The guard eyed Ethan with dislike and stepped back, motioning Velda to come, and Velda glanced back to see Ethan staring after her, hands clenched at his sides, before the door closed.
She was taken down long, dark corridors, only barely lit.
She wondered if the Caruso could see better in the dark, or if this was a power saving effort.
Whatever it was, she blinked a little at the brightness of the room she was led into. Two soldiers were present, neither one of them seated.
One had on a uniform, and it looked subtly more formal than the ones she’d seen so far. He was probably the captain, or at least a high ranking officer.
The other Caruson didn’t seem to be wearing a uniform at all. He wore loose black clothes, the most casual she’d ever seen on a Caruson, and she didn’t know if he was just off duty, or not in the military at all.
She studied him while trying to pretend she wasn’t doing just that.
There was a table, and numerous chairs, but she didn’t want to sit, and so she stood just within the door, hands clasped together, and waited.
After the Caruson had given her the once over, the uniformed one crossed massive arms over his chest. “You are Velda Shan?ha? Aponi Head of Defense?”
“Yes.” She lifted her gaze to meet his, and he gave a grunt of satisfaction.
“What do you know about the woman you say is Linao?”
It had been a toss-up to Velda as to whether she’d be asked about Linao or the silver balls. Now she knew what they were more interested in.
“I only met her yesterday for the first time, and I’ve been a prisoner that whole time, either of the Cores, or of you, so not much.” She twisted her lips in what she hoped they’d read as regret.
“She was introduced to you as Linao?” the one in black asked.
“The other crew referred to her as Linao, she never introduced herself.” Velda wondered if they were second-guessing if she really was Linao.
“And what did they say?” Mr. Black asked.
“They said she was lucky they had been told to swing out of their way to fetch her on their trip to give you the ore, because that wouldn’t have been done for anyone else,” Velda said.
“Why did they have to do that? Why did they have to fetch her?” Uniform tilted his head in question.
“Apparently she had escaped from an Aponi military prison and needed to get out of our system fast.” Velda still hated that that had been possible. That there were people in her department who the Cores had been able to manipulate.
“In prison?” Mr. Black sounded very interested. “Do you know what she was doing there?”
Velda shook her head. “I had been hiking through the mountains for days and didn’t know what was happening in Demeter. We saw what looked like an attack on the city from the trail, but we couldn’t reach out to anyone because our comms were down.”
“The Head of Defense of Aponi was hiking in the mountains during an invasion?” Mr. Black asked.
“It wasn’t by choice. The Cores shot down the runner I was on while I was traveling from Nanganya to Demeter, and we crashed in the mountains. I’ve been out of touch for over a week now.”
“We?” Uniform nodded slowly . “Your companion is Ethan Hyt of Demeter Special Forces?”
“Yes. He was with me as we traveled back.”
“And you were taken prisoner in the mountains how?” Mr. Black sounded slightly derisive.
“We came across the mine and tried to steal one of their hovers to get back to Demeter faster. We got caught.” Velda shrugged.
“And they ran some . . . tests on you?” Uniform asked.
“They said they did. We were blindfolded the whole time.”
Mr. Black gave a slow nod. “Before our people were injured and killed by the Cores, we were told about these experiments, and the scientist showed them what they entailed.”
“How many times did they put the balls in and then take them out of you?” Uniform asked.
Velda tried to keep her face neutral. “Three times?” she said, as if unsure. “I think three times.”
“Were they planning more?” Black asked.
“Ritter said he was, but he was despondent. He thought it was a waste of time.” She wondered if that part of the conversation had been shared with the top guys.
Uniform grunted. “Why are there are only four, when there is space for ten?”
Velda shrugged. “I can only guess. They found the box in an ancestral wreck. Perhaps that was all there was inside, after all this time?”
She hadn’t realized until this very moment that the Caruson had taken Ritter’s little demonstration to mean he had put the balls in and taken them out of her and Ethan each time. That the sum total of balls had always been four.
It is good to have the element of surprise, the voice inside her said.
It was.
“You say ancestral wreck. You mean from the convoy that brought your people to this part of the galaxy?” Mr. Black asked.
“That’s what Linao said. She mentioned that is how the Cores had found Garmen. From the signal the wreck was emitting.”
“I didn’t know that.” Mr. Black’s face was difficult to read, the Caruson features much stiffer than a Verdant Stringer’s, but Velda thought he seemed astonished.
“Linao knows a lot.” Uniform shared a look with Mr. Black. Then he walked around her to the door, careful not to get too close or touch her in any way, which Velda found interesting, and then opened the door to call the guard to escort her back to the cell.
They had a brief conversation, and then Velda was taken back.
The whole thing had taken twenty minutes or so, and was much easier than she’d thought.
They probably saw her as an asset who could be useful when dealing with Aponi. She hoped they saw Ethan the same way, even though they were far more wary of him than they were of her.
Linao, on the other hand . . .
She hoped for her sake that the Caruso saw her as a bargaining chip with the Cores. Otherwise she was in trouble.